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The
Columbus Dispatch
www.dispatch.com
Ignorance isn't bliss:
Property owners should be told of hazards
Sunday,
January 28, 2001
Much
of contemporary public-policy debate centers on the rights
of private property owners to use and protect their land.
So,
learning that several western Licking County homeowners
have been living near a hazardous-waste site without realizing
it is not only surprising but unnerving. They and other
Ohioans wonder why state officials didn't spread the news
to neighbors years ago when they learned that drums of paint
and solvent had been found buried on a 10- acre site in
Alexandria.
That
was in the early 1990s.
"We've
been drinking the water here for 10 years,'' said David
Ott, 47, who lives near the site on the appropriately named
Hardscrabble Road. Many residents of the rural area are
worried about their well water, although several wells on
the property have been tested and show no signs of contamination.
As The
Dispatch reported last week, Samir Yebaile, an environmental
specialist with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency,
said the agency at first thought only 40 or 50 drums of
paint and solvents were buried on the site; so far, though,
more than 650 55-gallon drums have been removed from two
of five suspected dump sites on the property.
Considering
the potential health threat, the agency should be encouraged
to do better. Dianne Alexander, who lives just north of
the property and has organized a local effort to keep tabs
on the cleanup, sounds reasonable when she says, "It
wouldn't have put you over budget to tell the neighbors.''
Indeed,
a press release is a relatively easy and inexpensive way
to alert the news media -- and, through them, the public
-- that hazardous materials have been found in a neighborhood.
For
a public agency whose stated mission is "to protect
the environment and public health by ensuring compliance
with environmental laws and demonstrating leadership in
environmental stewardship,'' the Ohio EPA has a history
of being less than forthcoming with pertinent information.
For
example, a few years ago, the agency approved the addition
of 4.5 million chickens and 14 barns at the embattled Buckeye
Egg Farm between the communities of Johnstown and Hartford,
also in Licking County. The move threw area residents for
a loop. The only public notice the EPA had provided was
a small-type legal ad in a Newark newspaper.
After
that, new rules were enacted requiring the agency to notify
local media, health departments, soil and water conservation
districts, state legislators, county commissioners, township
trustees and mayors in areas where factory farms are proposed.
Better
late than never. State agencies must keep in mind that what
residents don't know, indeed, can hurt them. The EPA has
made some strides, under Director Christopher Jones, toward
more lucid policies, but the Alexandria dump site offers
proof of room for further improvement. There is no statutory
requirement that the public be alerted to hazardous materials
near their homes. But the image of bureaucrats robotically
following a rule book, rather than going beyond what's required
and exercising sound judgment, is one reason people don't
trust government.
Ohio
residents should responsibly seek their own information
about sites whose safety they question. But residents also
should be assured that the government they pay taxes to
support will tell them when hazardous materials are found
near their homes.
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